Danger Route (1967) User Reviews

A nice, tight, secret-agent film

[mjsseppl-imdb · 7/10 · 10 November 2007]

To compare this film to 007 Bond films would to be lead readers astray.

Bond films don't have tight plots - this film is far closer to the films and series based on John Le Carré's works. The film is never boring and seems to finish too soon - one would have liked more time for the denouement.

And that is a sign of a good tight plot - when the viewer feels that the film has ended too soon.

The film shows how without any gadgets and spectacular action a good plot can still hold the viewers' attention.

There is action - fights and murders - but they are not spectacular - nor are they intended to be. They are cold, quick and quiet.

It is an enjoyable secret service film from the 1960's - a predecessor for the excellent Le Carré films and series.

Enjoy it!

"Sheep. That is always what he wanted to get his hands on"

[hwg1957-102-265704 · 6/10 · 12 January 2020]

Based on the Andrew York novel called 'The Eliminator' this is a story concerning an ageing assassin Jonas Wilde who is becoming disenchanted and wants to leave the service he works for but gets involved again. It's a complicated story with twists and turns. The mood is dour and downbeat and at times rather dull. It needed a better script.

Richard Johnson is fine as Wilde and there are good acting turns from Harry Andrews, Diana Dors, Sam Wanamaker, Sylvia Syms and Gordon Jackson but their dialogue is undeveloped. Beautiful Carol Lynley is wasted in her short role. The film had promise but didn't deliver.

Richard Johnson was considered for the James Bond role at the start of the series and would have been excellent. This film about Jonas Wilde and the two Bulldog Drummond films he did in the same Bond-ish vein were not worthy of his solid acting talents.

DANGER ROUTE (Seth Holt, 1967) ***

[Bunuel1976 · 7/10 · 3 September 2011]

Some years back, I had recorded this (on VHS) off the MGM cable channel but the reception had been so poor I did not make it through the film; eventually, I upgraded to a decent copy – albeit also sourced from MGM and, thus, panned-and-scanned! Anyway, I decided to check this out now (and the two remaining unwatched films from this promising but short-lived director) as a follow-up to star Richard Johnson's recently-viewed appearances – in the same mould – as Bulldog Drummond but also in anticipation of two upcoming Holt revisits in my ongoing tribute to the late Hammer scribe Jimmy Sangster. Still, unlike those two lightweight spy films, this is anything but campy or glossy; in fact, typical of most Cold War espionage yarns of its era (equating realism with glumness), the plot is fairly obscure, so that the result proves oddly unmemorable despite careful work all around!

It is therefore up to an impressive cast (in uniformly fine form) to deliver the goods and keep one watching: Johnson, Carol Lynley (as his two-timing girlfriend who tries to poison him at the end – but her fish get it instead! – and whom he fells with a karate chop!), Barbara Bouchet (as an initially suspicious addition to the spy ring but who ultimately emerges a heroic trooper and even loses her life to the 'cause'), Harry Andrews (as Johnson's suave superior), Gordon Jackson (as the hero's seemingly laid-back skipper-partner but who turns out to be opportunistic, duplicitous and sadistic), Sylvia Syms (as Andrews' nagging wife who gets abducted on a train by Johnson), Diana Dors (as a housekeeper to a defecting scientist seduced by Johnson in the guise of a salesman), Sam Wanamaker (as the C.I.A.'s top man dubbed "Lucinda" and Bouchet's boss) and Maurice Denham (as Johnson's elderly team-mate whose murder starts the ball rolling).

The film opens in a movie theater where one is given to understand that Johnson will himself be eliminated by his own side once he completes his next mission, but this does not happen (having discovered the mole in their organization) but is nonetheless kept on a leash by the umbrella-carrying Andrews in the freeze-frame finale (incidentally, Holt's start as an editor at Ealing Studios is much in evidence here as the film's pacing is very tight, with scenes hardly being allowed to finish off or permitted to start gradually)! Apparently, Johnson was Terence Young's first choice to play James Bond but, as I said earlier, his world-weary 'eliminator' (the title of the original source novel) here is closer to the austerity of Harry Palmer. Johnson and Bouchet were once a romantic item and, as it happens, they probably both owe their popularity in cult movie circles today to Italian film-maker Lucio Fulci via, respectively, ZOMBIE (1979) and DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING (1972)!

Interestingly enough, Holt (who worked for Hammer 3 times) is here employed by their main rivals, Amicus; for the record, he had already dabbled in the spy world by directing episodes of TV's DANGER MAN (1960-61) and ESPIONAGE (1964). The film under review – which the director apparently dismissed as "dreadful" and claimed he only made it because he "needed the bread"! – is Holt's final completed work (in the U.S. it was unceremoniously released as a double-feature, incongruously paired with Paul Wendkos' second-rate war movie ATTACK ON THE IRON COAST {1968}!), since alcoholism got the better of him…dying at the young age of 47 two-thirds of the way through shooting Hammer's superior BLOOD FROM THE MUMMY'S TOMB (1971)!; even so, Johnson later named him one of the best taskmasters he ever worked for.

A real gem for lovers of serious spy flicks

[vjetorix · 6 November 2002]

Based on the novel 'The Eliminator' by Andrew York, this deeply cynical look at the spy game is one of the unsung gems of the genre. It would be the only spy feature film in director Seth Holt's short career although he had worked on the 'Danger Man' and 'Espionage' television series previously. Holt would start one more film, The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (71) but he wouldn't finish it.

This is one of those movies where everyone's motives are suspect and should be for good reasons. Hardly anyone is who they seem to be and if indeed they are genuine, they end up as dead as the straw men in the end. There are many levels to Danger Route, all working to subvert our expectations as well as those of Jonas Wilde (Richard Johnson), the agent caught in the middle of the power plays going on around him.

Understandably, Wilde would like to escape the game and even hands in his resignation during the course of the film. Naturally we know this is impossible. Even Whitehall is not above using a little blackmail to get their way. The freeze-frame of Wilde at the end of the film tells us that his predicament is as unchanging as that of the Cold War politics surrounding him.

Like the Matt Helm series, nothing left worth watching.....

[A_Different_Drummer · 1/10 · 11 September 2013]

Come with me to the wonderful world of 60s spy fiction. Emboldened by the success of the Bond books and movies (Fleming wrote his novels on the beach, literally, with hunt and peck typing) the world enjoyed the greatest variety of spy fiction ever seen, present day included. Two of the most popular and critically-praised tomes, the Matt Helm series by Donald Hamilton, and the consummately perfect Jonas Wilde series by Andrew York, were serially destroyed by producers who were more interested in showing how clever they were than trying to capture the essence of the story. Jonas Wilde, as written, was a spy so well drawn that, in a showdown, you might pick him over Bond. No gadgets, no women, just a physical zeal to get the job done, and a rare (perfected) judo move which allowed him to kill with one blow (most of the time, often his back went out which reduced him to a mere mortal). This was the one and only attempt to bring Wilde to the screen, based on The Eliminator (one of the Wilde series, they are all excellent) and it is nothing short of wretched. Badly written, badly directed, showing no appreciation for the uniqueness of the character, and the lead actor so badly miscast that you wonder if he ever stopped mugging for the camera long enough to actually put some personality into his role. A travesty.

Hit Man for Whitehall

[boblipton · 6/10 · 12 October 2018]

Richard Johnson is a hit man for British intelligence. Literally. He offs them with a karate chop to the neck. He's getting weary of the job and is thinking of leaving the profession when he gets another job. Whitehall wants a Soviet defector, but the Americans have him, so he needs killing. Johnson is assigned to the task. However things go awry. There's more at work than Whitehall setting policy.

There's a lot of Bondian elements here: the beautiful women, and so forth -- Carol Lynley, Barbara Bouchet and Sylvia Sims, and Diana Dors gets the cherished final spot on the credits. It's not just a Bondian romp at the peak of the 1960s spy craze. The darkness and betrayal lend a tinge of John Lecarre to the proceedings as Johnson slowly untangles the tangled web of the plot of the plot -- and finds himself snarled in its slubby mass at the end.

It a good performance and you can see why Johnson had been Terrence Young's first pick for playing Bond in DOCTOR NO. Although the movie works, his depressed character is, in the end, not terribly attractive; however, no one is.

A more curvy route than the most dangerous mountain roads.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 30 May 2022]

While there is definitely some great location footage and lots of fun action scenes, the plot of this typical 60's spy thriller is a convoluted mess to say the least. This is another one of the many films made in the 1960's where the script writer thinks that they are so clever and they can make the viewer feel like an idiot for not being able to keep up with the plot and pretend to understand everything that's going on so they sound smart. In the end, it's really all about nothing. Richard Johnson gets a bevy of beautiful ladies ( Diana Dors ,Sylvia Syms ,Barbara Bouchet and Carol Lynley), but they are all pretty interchangeable and any of the four could have played any of the other rules.

There is one amusing sequence where Johnson is trapped in one of the women's bedrooms, having gone there for the night and then interrupted to find out that there are important guests there which means that he can't leave the grounds until they've retired. Harry Andrews does fine as the character who supposedly guides the spy plot, but after a while, I really gave up. However, I did enjoy the title song over the opening credits written by British musical composer Lionel Bart ("Oliver!").

Above average cynical and complicated spy story

[PTaylor129 · 6/10 · 14 March 2021]

Danger Route has usually been dismissed (if not ignored) as an unexciting, confused and run-of-the mill spy thriller, not to say another unsuccessful attempt from the second half of the 1960s to cash in on the success of the James Bond series. Yet, while it is imperfect in several ways, Danger Route deserves credit for its original and intelligent plot, dark realism and fine performances. Despite its misleading promotional poster, the film does not actually try to entice the viewer with Bond-style suspense and action sequences, but rather with its complex intrigue and character study of a disillusioned secret agent operating in a world where no-one may be quite what they seem to be. Indeed, the film's style is closer to the genre more successfully represented by the likes of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and the Harry Palmer films starring Michael Caine. Perhaps the plot lingers a little bit at the beginning and appears unnecessarily convoluted, but if one is willing to struggle through some confusion, it is quite interesting to follow and remains consistently unpredictable. It is somewhat difficult to get emotionally engaged into the story, partly because the main character, played by Richard Johnson, is rather enigmatic and distant - he is after all a cold-blooded assassin (albeit one working on "our side"). But this is arguably part of the film's originality. While there had already been a few similarly dark and cynical espionage dramas by 1967 (notably those aforementioned), it was not yet common to have such a morally ambiguous and cynical hero. This would, however, become much more the norm for this film genre in the 1970s. Richard Johnson does a fine job of conveying the detachment and weariness of this character, even subtly managing to attract some sympathy for his predicament. Johnson is surrounded by a strong cast that includes Carol Lynley, Barbara Bouchet, Gordon Jackson, Sylvia Syms, Harry Andrews, and Diana Dors, who all give very good performances. Where the film slightly fails in my view is in its uneven direction (it is known that director Seth Holm became ill during the shooting of the film) and average production values, which sometimes make it seem like a B-feature, although it is not. Ultimately, I don't consider Danger Route to quite be a good film, but it is certainly better than your routine spy romp, and has some interesting elements going for it.

muddle

[SnoopyStyle · 4/10 · 26 August 2020]

British assassin Jonas Wilde receives a kill mission from his superior Tony Canning for an East Bloc scientist being held by the Americans. The plot is convoluted. This is not 007 and it's a real muddle. Richard Johnson is no Sean Connery. He's not charismatic. It's definitely a downer but that's actually fine by me. If this wants to be a more serious espionage thriller, then get rid of the Bond girl in a bath tub. I watched this on TCM and there is a big problem with the panning. All in all, this is grim but not in a good way. It's grim in the boring sense. It actually starts with an interesting scene but it's downhill from that point on.

"Do you really want me to dress that wound? You're getting blood on the Carpet"

[richardchatten · 6/10 · 30 December 2023]

The director had come down considerably in the world by the time he made this potboiler in colour for Amicus, but it does reflect the fatalism of his directorial debut 'Nowhere to Go' and is far from the dog's dinner Betty Box & Ralph Thomas made of their two films featuring Richard Johnson as Bulldog Drummond.

By this time the more squalid side of espionage was already becoming a commonplace - even if Johnson drives a car with personalised number plates and it boast a title song sung by Anita Harris and rather exotic sitar score by John Mayer - so in Holt's hands the violence is both far messier and more intimate than usual.

Danger Potential Viewers

[Waiting2BShocked · 2/10 · 8 September 2005]

A lacklustre British spy thriller which sets itself Here, There and Everywhere, puffing along in the hopeful wake of the success of the James Bond series. The 'plot', about Johnson becoming embroiled in murder and intrigue when called upon to bump off a defecting scientist, quickly becomes as coma-inducing as it does brain-scrambling for those paying enough attention to care.

Seth Holt, along with his regular art director someone or other (check the credits), was responsible for some of Hammer's best 60s suspense films; apart from a few revelatory sequences on a train you'd be forgiven for overlooking this fact on the strength of what is presented here.

I sometimes forget how good Richard Johnson was as an actor

[bensonmum2 · 8/10 · 20 July 2017]

Given Danger Route's lackluster 5.7 IMDb rating, I really wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did. In the movie, Jonas Wilde (Richard Johnson) is a successful government operative who handles more sensitive cases (he's an assassin). Recently returned from a mission, he's immediately sent on another. This time, his handlers really don't care if he's successful or not. Either way, they want him dead. Coincidentally, Wilde wants out of the game altogether and has taken steps in that direction. His steps, however, do not include his own death.

Most of the spy movie I watch tend to feature comedy or some other craziness. They may not be out and out spoofs or something like that, but they do include their share of humor. These spy movies generally feature crazy gadgets, over-the-top villains, exotic locations, and scads of beautiful women. Not here. Danger Route is deadly serious stuff. And while it does feature enough beautiful women for a Bond movie, there are none of the other trappings normally found in a spy film. I wasn't sure how this would play with me, but worked almost flawlessly. I appreciated the serious tone and the real tension it created. There's still plenty of action, but it's more subdued and realistic. I also thought the film had a nice flow to it. Never was I bored. I'll give credit to the brilliant Seth Holt who directed Danger Route. It's really too bad he died so young and after directing less than a dozen films. I'd like to have seen what a longer career might have produced. Finally, the writing is strong as well. The plot is filled with twists and turns. Most of these twists, including the final one, worked as intended on me. Overall, Danger Route is fine filmmaking.

The acting in Danger Route warrants a mention. Richard Johnson never gets enough credit as a rock solid actor. Whether it's a more comedic film like Some Girls Do or he's running form zombies in Zombi, I always seem to enjoy his work. He's joined by a very capable cast that includes Carol Lynley, Gordon Jackson, Diana Dors, and Harry Andrews. My only complaint with the cast is Barbara Bouchet. It's not that she's bad or anything, just terribly underutilized.

I really have nothing negative to say about the movie. It's a solid film with nice direction, writing, and acting. And, as is always key for me, I was thoroughly entertained. Danger Route gets an 8/10 from me.

Better Than Expected

[TondaCoolwal · 7/10 · 23 March 2022]

Many reviews have compared this movie unfavourably with the Bond films of the era (Richard Johnson had to refuse the offer to play 007 due to contractual obligations with MGM). However, I felt that Jonas Wilde had more in common with Patrick McGoohan's John Drake from Danger Man. Like Drake, Wilde doesn't easily resort to guns, although he can use one. Also Wilde shares Drakes's irascible nature and intolerance of incompetent superiors.

Basically Wilde is an assassin in the pay of the British Government. He doesn't ask questions, he simply does the job and is paid for it. His cover is that of a boatyard contractor in partnership with Brian Stearn (Gordon Jackson) another agent. They deliver boats to Jersey where Wilde changes identity and goes off to do the job. Having completed 31 assignments Wilde wants out but is coerced/blackmailed into another one. This time he has to kill a defecting Soviet scientist who is being held over in a country mansion by the CIA. Again, like Drake, Wilde does not rely on gadgetry, but gains access to the house by seducing the housekeeper. He kills the scientist with a karate chop, his favourite method of execution, but is apprehended. Questioned by CIA man Lucinda (Sam Wanamaker) Wilde is told that his last target was in fact one of Lucinda's men working undercover. Wilde has assumed that he was working for the good guys but ,now he is no longer so sure. Even the killing of the scientist seems questionable. The remainder of the movie revolves around his working out just who can be trusted. As Lucinda tells him "Trust went out in the forties. But nobody told the British." The final unravelling is surprising if not exactly unexpected. A big clue is provided in the opening scene in a cinema. Richard Johnson is convincing as the jaded Wilde, and he is supported by an admirable cast which includes Harry Andrews, Carol Lynley, Maurice Denham, Barbara Bouchet and Diana Dors.

In another McGoohan similarity, Wilde tries to resign at the end of the movie, but his boss tells him that is not possible. Pity there weren't any further Wilde movies.

Incoherent

[malcolmgsw · 2/10 · 15 June 2022]

Richard Johnson was a poor man's Sean Connery. So he seemed to be attracted to second rate spy films such as this. The plot is a total mess and it is impossible to work out what is happening and why. This makes it a very challenging film to sit through.

Lots of well known actors flit in and out but are unable to revive this boring farargo.

Forgotten British B-pic...

[Glad-2 · 19 November 2001]

. But worth noting for its star Richard Johnson and director Seth Holt. A former Royal Shakespeare Company actor, Johnson was Bond director Terence Young's original choice to play 007 and might have proved much closer to author Ian Fleming's concept of him. Indeed, Johnson was briefly groomed by the Rank Organisation in the late Sixties as their answer to Sean Connery, hoping to ride the Bond slipstream (but the two films Deadlier Than the Male and Some Girls Do were too cynically packaged to work as either imitation or spoof).

Johnson's brand of worried suavity found a better vehicle here. A minor addition to the murkier side of the genre, it remains most notable for Holt. A former editor, Holt's deft cutting room skills had made two suspense films he directed for Hammer (Taste of Fear and The Nanny) unusually seamless and subtle.

Alas, in Danger Route, even his assured touch failed to enliven an intractable plot about Cross-Channel espionage. But an exceptionally strong support cast - Harry Andrews, Diana Dors and Gordon Jackson - and a certain casual ruthlessness, lift this film above the totally routine. And Carol Lynley and Barbara Bouchet are truly gorgeous.

Trite cynicisms and a trashy title-song date Danger Route unsympathetically. But Holt's admirers will discern enough in its minor virtues to compensate.

Dull and muddled espionage drama

[lorenellroy · 6/10 · 27 December 2007]

This is another movie from the mid 1960's that sought to leap on board the Bond -wagon but for the most fell lamentably short.Richard Johnson - a talented actor deserving of better material-plays a British agent Jonas Wilde who is ordered by his superiors to kill a Czech scientist being held captive by the Americans in Dorset ,Southern england.the reasons are never wholly clear . The over complicated plot sees him getting involved with a senior British civil servant( Harry Andrews ), who vanishes mysteriously ; a double agent (Gordon Jackson)and 4 women who all -quite unaccountably fall for his charms .These are played by Diana Dors ,Sylvia Syms ,Barbara Bouchet and Carol Lynley

Wilde is ambivalent about his profession and would love to quit but his bosses will not let him The plot is twisty and too complex and while the odd scene is exciting and the acting is solid, mostly this is confusing and dull with none of the gloss and style of the Bond movies it aspires to be like

Bond in the real world

[neil-douglas2010 · 7/10 · 6 December 2022]

Even from the strains of the particularly bad Bondesque theme tune, this is Bond in another world. One for the late 60's, even though made in 67 and the sitar music in the first half hour. This is a spy movie for a stale Britain. Richard Johnson plays the "hero" Jonas Wilde, not a likeable hero but them not many of the characters in this film are. It's a spy movie with lots of double crossing, but without the big sets of the Bond movies. Having said that Johnson's ok, but it's the ladies who provide the oomph in this film. Diana Dors is great as Rhoda, the always great Sylvia Sims is brilliant role as Mrs Canning and Carol Lynley almost steals the show as Wilde's sometime girlfriend. A decent effort.

Danger Route

[CinemaSerf · 6/10 · 26 December 2022]

At times this is in danger of tripping over it's own cloak and stabbing itself, but Richard Johnson ("Wilde") still just about manages to keep it interesting for ninety minutes. He is a British secret agent who is charged with bumping off a Czech scientist who has defected to join the CIA in the UK. Needless to say, this is not going to be a straightforward quest - and it only becomes more complicated when he discovers that there is an whole network of people in whom he is uncertain he can trust. Those duplicitous individuals include his own boss "Canning" (Harry Andrews) and a host of recognisable British faces - Gordon Jackson, Maurice Denham and Diana Dors as well as his CIA oppo "Lucinda" (Sam Wanamaker). In the best tradition of John Buchan's "39 Steps", the search leads him to a remote Channel Island location where peril lurks and bodies start piling up. It's a bit on the long side this, it would have made for a better and more enthralling hour or so, and director Seth Holt could have cut out much of the rather yawning character establishment and a fair chunk of the rather wordy dialogue. Still, once we get into the home straight, it offers a fair degree of intrigue and is an adequate cold war thriller that passes the time, but is unlikely a film you will ever want to watch again.

Casually Fabulous

[darrelwatson · 8/10 · 20 March 2022]

Dors, Sims, Lynley. Sitar soundtrack. What's not to like?

A Richard Johnson flick is never a bad thing, especially in this mid to late 1960s era. Daft plots of charming British Bondish agents risking it all for Queen and Country, up against ne'er-do-well foreigners bent on global hoo-har, at all times charming the Kings Road Popsies.

John Mayer provides a cool as you know what soundtrack, niiiiice.

Watch this film and look back at the good times back in the day or have your suspicion that you were born to late confirmed.

An Amicus Masterpiece.

NO NONSENSE OR FLUFF...GROUNDED IN THE REALITY OF SPY-STUFF...VIA 60's ZEITGEIST

[LeonLouisRicci · 7/10 · 13 January 2024]

Produced at the Height, but Slowly Sinking "James Bond"-Global Espionage-Spy Frenzy, that Dominated the Decade.

It all Started with a "No One Saw Coming" Semi-Low-Budget British Movie, Starring a Little-Known Actor, Sean Connery.

Make Way for Secret Agent James Bond...Code Name - 007...Adding an Attraction...Double 00 Have a "License to Kill".

Bond Became a "Hip" Boomer-Friendly Phenom and Showcased a Hero Dedicated to... "Queen and Country".

Bond was a "Cold-War" Super-Hero. Created by Real-Life "Spook" Ian Fleming.

All the Novels were "Best Sellers", and could be Found in the "Bedroom" (among other peripherals, just as attractive as the Bond Stories), in the Bedroom of JFK (President of the United States).

James Bond Novels were a Favorite Past-Time for the Youth Oriented Kennedy, along with other things much Warmer than the Cold-War.

He had Style...Bond, James Bond...Wore the Best, Drove the Best, Romanced the Most Glamorous, Had Numerous Skills Befitting the Elite Upper Echelon Defenders of the British Empire. What's Not to Like?

Tailor Made for the "Time"...Irresistible Post-War, New Kind of War Atmosphere of the Atomic-Age, Space-Age, and a Coming-of-Age Boomer Mentality that was On-the-Edge...

Independent Thinking, Changing Well-Established Norms to Fit the Their Time...as Written by Folk-Singer-Poet Bob Dylan..."The Times, They are, Changin".

Bond and All that He Was...is a Microcosmic Image of "The New".

At the Time, this was a Hot from the Assembly Line of the Mass-Production of "James Bond".

"Danger Route" was of the "Super-Serious" Variety.

The Approach...Mostly Grounded in Science and the Battle-Zones from Real-Life.

Unlike the Fanciful Films that the "Bond Series" and some of its Clones Became an Easy Sell with All That Eye-Candy,

Grandiose and Self Aware Satire, this One is Not.

If that's Your "Cup-of-Tea", Look Elsewhere.

This One is Played Straight, with the Lead Actor, Richard Johnson, Not Only Playing a Character Similar to the one that Connery Made Famous, with "Bond",

but Also Looks Uncannily Like Sean Connery, Especially at Certain Angles. No Coincidence.

Apart from the Trend of Self-Parody, Spoof, Satire and the Like, that of the Evolving of the Ian Fleming Character James Bond, some would say Devolved into.

This is more like the Spy-Stuff of John le Carre (also a real-life Spook)..."Sticking to Semi-Reality".

It's a Refreshing Look-Away from the what became Silly and is For Spy-Buffs a...

Must-See

For Others it's...

Worth a Watch.

Seth Holt in fine form!

[JohnHowardReid · 8/10 · 2 February 2017]

Director Seth Holt is back in fine form in this engrossing thriller which had me sitting on the edge of my seat for its whole running time of 92 minutes. (I wonder if some of the negative reviews resulted from exposure to prints that ran less than 92 minutes?)

Admittedly, Holt had the advantage of an extremely lavish production, complete with fine sets and an outstanding cast, plus a script that moves at breakneck speed. This is one film that really must be seen from the very beginning. To come even a few minutes late is to rob yourself of absolutely vital information. Director Seth Holt keeps a tight rein on his material and intensifies tension with an imaginative choice of lighting and camera angles. Harry Waxman's color photography is also most effective.

My only complaint is that although production credits are generally first-rate, there are a few occasions in which back projection is pretty obvious.

Worth the watch. Better than Bond in many ways.

[BKCooper · 2 December 1998]

The title song for this movie reminds one of the middle James

Bond films--a catchy title woven into an incomprehensible song. Happily, things improve quickly. Jonas Wilde, the licensed killer, is dour and taciturn, but I was empathizing with him before too long. Jonas uses no outrageous stunts, no silly gadgets, and the movie was almost over when I was struck by the realization that there was not a single chase scene. Jonas does not even use a weapon, killing rather with a sharp blow to the neck (I would call it a Judo Chop, except I know nothing of Judo) This film was written so as to leave the way open for sequels; it is a loss none were made.

High quality spy film replete with 60s style tones

[birdonthehorizon · 9/10 · 27 August 2020]

Quick-paced suspense film in the mode of Bond but without the bells and whistles and gimmicks or humor. Music, decor, titles, etc. bring back mixed memories of the 1960s. The cast is terrific from protagonist Richard Johnson to his cohorts and antagonists including the four women. All of the latter (Carol Lynley, Diana Dors, Barbara Bouchet, and Sylvia Syms) inhabit their roles and reward the camera in every scene they occupy. Probably more 8.5 than 9 but certainly well above some of the lower ratings posted here. Excellent entertainment.

A Bond-ish 'B' movie, with Carol Lynley.

[TxMike · 28 February 2013]

I sought out this movie for one reason ... it has Carol Lynley in it. I first saw her when I was 14, she was a teenager in 1959's 'Blue Denim', a risqué teen pregnancy movie, but I just had the biggest crush on her. Something about her, her face, the way she moves, the way she delivers lines, to me she was the epitome of the girl you wanted to date.

Anyway lots of years have passed, neither of us are young anymore, but it is fun to re-visit those memories.

In this movie, set and filmed in England, Brit Richard Johnson is agent Jonas Wilde with a license to kill. And in fact he does kill a few targets. Sort of a poor man's James Bond without all the gadgets. But as the story develops he learns that he has become a target of his own organization, and he has to use his cunning to survive.

His American girlfriend is Carol Lynley as Jocelyn . She doesn't have a large role, but an important one. She is pretty much the same girl as in 'Blue Denim', just about 8 years older.

I enjoyed it as light entertainment, as a 'blast from the past', but it is nothing more than a 'B' movie.

SPOILERS: As Jonas begins to learn of the plot against him, he is told someone very close to him is keeping an eye on him. He figures out correctly that it is Jocelyn and in their final encounter at the apartment they shared, she tries to poison him via ice he always uses for his drink, but he is wary, puts a cube in the fish tank instead, the fish die but he doesn't, and he is forced to kill her by breaking her neck.

A SOLID SPY YARN

[jawlaw · 8/10 · 3 September 2020]

I note the reviews on this film are quite mixed. I think those that have a poor opinion of it are used to spy films that are full of explosions, bikinis and gadgets. This is a different sort of spy film with a more realistic treatment of the subject matter. It is much more in the John Le Carre tradition than the Ian Fleming tradition.

Like the Jimmy Sangster novels and films "The Spy Killer" and "Foreign Exchange" the viewer has to watch closely because the plot subtly develops with very unexpected twists and turns....and I do mean twists. Richard Johnson is excellent as a very low key assassin who is seeking to get out of the business.

If you are longing for kinetic fight scenes and explosive action, forget it. This is a spy yarn that is cerebral and not a vehicle for continuous action. It does not infuse hot war action into a cold war setting. Someone else wrote that it is a gem of a movie. I think that well sums it up. Carol Lynley plays the spy's live in lover, but do not mistake her for mere scenery. Enough said.